Consumers are generally aware to some extent of copyright laws concerning digital recordings, but there are no automatic features in place to assist consumers in abiding with them. For example, a consumer who purchases a song on a CD, or through a subscription with an Internet music sharing service such as Napster, generally does not know if he is permitted to make personal copies of the song for himself, on one or more of his computers, or on one or more CDs, or on one or more MP3 players.
Digital rights management (DRM) technology addresses this concern by encapsulating songs within a DRM wrapper. The DRM wrapper, which is generally encrypted, specifies whether or not a specific device has the necessary rights to play a specific song. Hardware or software within the player then enables or disables playing of the song accordingly. Generally, DRM systems only enable playing of a song on a device if the owner of the device has purchased a license for the song. If the owner of the device has not purchased a license for the song and wishes to do so, and if the device is connected via a computer network to a licensing authority, referred to as a “clearing house,” then the owner may purchase a license from the clearing house, in which case the DRM wrapper is updated so as to reflect current ownership.
A disconnected device, however, generally cannot purchase such a license unless the disconnected device connects with a connected device that can access a clearing house. As such, the disconnected device cannot play a song that is not licensed by the owner of the device, when the owner is not located at a point of connection.
For marketing purposes, it would be beneficial if disconnected devices could play trial versions of songs that are not licensed by the device owners, and if such trial versions could be copied as trial versions from one disconnected device to another. The owners of the disconnected devices could then listen to the trial versions of the songs and afterwards, if they wish to purchase licenses to the songs, could do so by connecting their disconnected devices to a connected device, at their convenience, and purchasing licenses from a clearing house.
It would thus be beneficial if a merchandising system was in place to manage digital rights for songs that are obtained as trial versions, copied from device to device, and subsequently converted to fully licensed versions.
It would also be beneficial to track the history of license purchases within such a merchandising system, as trial versions of songs are copied from device to device through a sharing chain of friends, some of whom eventually purchase licenses to the trial versions. In particular, tracking of licensing history would enable a profit-sharing arrangement whereby a portion of the payment paid by a person along the sharing chain is allotted to the original clearing house or vendor from which a song was licensed.
Additionally, it would be beneficial for an owner of digital music to be able to listen to his music on networked devices that do not store digital copies of the music itself. Such benefit would enable the owner to access his music while away from his home, essentially anywhere: The owner could then listen to his music on cell phones, networked portable media players and public access devices such as media center devices in hotel rooms, whether or not such devices belong to the owner.